Old Bike Australasia – July 21, 2019

56 :OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA

TRACKS IN TIMESYMMONS PLAINS

500cc on Ron Angel’s Kawasaki. Blake

took the win despite falling at the

hairpin and remounting, setting a new

outright record lap of 1.04.2 on the way.

Sidecar honours went to I. Sheldrick

(Junior) and Gerry O’Brien (Unlimited).

The final Australian Grand Prix to be

contested before it became a multi-

round affair was also held at Symmons

Plains, in March 1972. Watched by a very

small crowd, Bill Horsman was top man

at the meeting with three GP wins, each

time from Bob Rosenthal. The two thinly-

supported Sidecar GPs went to Jim Craig

(Unlimited) and Brian Woods (Junior).

The following year, the track hosted

another milestone – the first round of

the six-round new-look Australian Road

Racing Championship. This attracted all

which eventually became an annual Two

Hour Race. The club also branched into a

new (for them) section of the sport by

running the 1976 Australian Short Circuit

Championships on an adjoining part of

the property near the airstrip, resulting

in a near clean sweep for Canberra rider

Kevin Patton. In the meantime the

annual ARRC round continued, and by

1977 Gregg Hansford on the Team

Kawasaki Australia 750 had the lap

record down to 57.3 seconds.

After a steady start in 1978, the

Swann Insurance International Series

made further strides for 1979, and

Symmons Plains secured the fourth of

the five rounds. Despite the presence of

Suzuki works rider Wil Hartog, British

Champion Bob Smith and Singapore

champion Fabian Looi, it was South

Australian Greg Pretty who starred,

winning both races on the day and

slashing the lap record to 56.02 seconds.

Improvements continued for the track,

with a new pit complex opened on the

outside of the circuit in 1984 and the

start/finish line moved to the same area.

Symmons Plains can take credit for

providing the training ground for a host

of local riders who would go on to

greater things, among them Malcolm

Campbell, Barry Lack, Craig Bye, Rob

Scolyer, and Scott Stephens, but in April

1998 came a tragic event that would

severely affect the track’s future. In a

training day accident, Kris Campbell, 17-

year-old son of Malcolm and Sue, crashed

into the fence entering the main straight

and was fatally injured. The accident,

as well as other concerns for safety,

eventually caused the track’s licence to be

withdrawn in 1999 for motorcycle racing.

It meant Ride Days only at the track until

a government-sponsored upgrade saw

the licence reinstated. This involved the

construction of a very tight chicane near

ABOVE Ron Boulden chases

Greg Pretty in the 1979

Swann International

Series round.

ABOVE CENTRE Local Chris

Robinson was a surprise

winner at the 1980 ARRC.

BELOW Front row of the grid

for the 250cc race at the

Australian Road Racing

Championships in 1980.

From left, Paul Lewis, Rick

Perry, Gregg Hansford,

Lee Roebuck and

Graeme Geddes.

the top names and the competition was

red hot, with Ron Toombs carving Blake’s

lap record down to 1.03, only to have

Bryan Hindle trim it further to 1.02.13.

18-year old Warren Willing took out the

250 event, with other wins going to

Atlee (125), Hindle (350) Toombs (500)

and young Queenslander Gregg Hansford

(Unlimited). The Bayliss father and son

squad dominated the sidecar events

with Stan winning the Unlimited and

Steve the Junior.

As far as major motorcycle events

went, that marked the start of a lean

period for Symmons Plains, but with the

growth in popularity of long-distance

Production Racing, it wasn’t long before

the Tasmania track tried it as well, with

a Three Hour race in December 1975,